Earth and Ashes

When the Soviet army arrives in Afghanistan, the elderly Dastaguir witnesses the destruction of his village and the death of his clan. His young grandson Yassin, deaf from the sounds of the bombing, is one of the few survivors. The two set out through an unforgiving landscape, searching for the coal mine where Murad, the old man’s son and the boy’s father, works. They reach their destination only to learn that they must wait and rely for help on all that remains to them: a box of chewing tobacco, some unripe apples, and the kindness of strangers. Haunting in its spareness, Earth and Ashes is a tale of devastating loss, but also of human perseverance in the face of madness and war. Publishers Weekly: The devastation of Afghanistan during the Soviet war is succinctly and piercingly conveyed in Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi (trans. from the Persian by Erdag M. Goknar), a novella-length account of an old man’s futile journey. Dastaguir and his grandson Yassin wait ...

Author: Rahimi Atiq
ISBN: 99442124
Year of publication: 2003
Translator: Goknar Erdag M.
Genre: Modern prose
Number of pages: 42
Reading time: 42 min.
Formats: FB2, EPUB, PDF
Language: english
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